El Chalten 3.12.11 – 7.12.11
We had a fantastic journey to El Chalten along route 40. Our driver was brilliant, playing some good music as we peered out the window at increasingly spectacular views. Then the Fitz-Roy mountain range came into view and it was incredible to look at.
The day was a perfect blue sky spring day and although it was a bit nippy outside the scenery almost looked like a painted on backdrop. Elis actually took some jump shot photos of us which looked like we had been superimposed. It was glorious.
The driver stopped at various points along the way for us to take the view in and some photos. He also took us to the information centre where a very helpful guide told us in a lot of detail about the area and asked us to leave no trace and protect the area to keep the national park free. (Wow! Something for free in Argentina! Unprecedented!!) We also got a detailed map of the walks we can do and all decided to do a six hour walk the next day to see Cerro Torre. Samly and I decided that this was definitely our favourite bus trip so far, brilliant. He even took us to our camp site and after meeting the windswept and hairy Humberto, we pitched our tent in a spot with a chocolate box view of a stream leading up to the snow capped peaks in the distance. Absolutely wonderful. Here is the view out of our tent door!
We wandered around the town which at first seemed a little like a ghost town, wind swept and elemental and we frequented a cafe, the supermercados and a restaurant before heading to our respective beds.
The day was a perfect blue sky spring day and although it was a bit nippy outside the scenery almost looked like a painted on backdrop. Elis actually took some jump shot photos of us which looked like we had been superimposed. It was glorious.
The driver stopped at various points along the way for us to take the view in and some photos. He also took us to the information centre where a very helpful guide told us in a lot of detail about the area and asked us to leave no trace and protect the area to keep the national park free. (Wow! Something for free in Argentina! Unprecedented!!) We also got a detailed map of the walks we can do and all decided to do a six hour walk the next day to see Cerro Torre. Samly and I decided that this was definitely our favourite bus trip so far, brilliant. He even took us to our camp site and after meeting the windswept and hairy Humberto, we pitched our tent in a spot with a chocolate box view of a stream leading up to the snow capped peaks in the distance. Absolutely wonderful. Here is the view out of our tent door!
We wandered around the town which at first seemed a little like a ghost town, wind swept and elemental and we frequented a cafe, the supermercados and a restaurant before heading to our respective beds.
The next morning we met at eleven AM after deciding upon a much needed lie in and began walking our way to the laguna from which you could see the peak of Cerro Torre and the glacier. It took us three hours there, mostly in the up direction (my screaming muscles!) and we walked through beautiful countryside, glacier streams and an extraordinary forest of dead trees, the bark of which had turned silver white, very ghostly!
We arrived at the glacier lake and had a very chilly and windswept lunch picnic and began our walk back. (If you look closely there are huge chunks of ice in that there glacier lake - and the strong, gusty wind had a minus degrees chill factor! We're doing very well to attempt to move our mouth muscles into a smile in this photo!!)
We were still able to drink the water straight from the streams as they came directly from the glacier melt. By this time we had enjoyed glacier water so much we had created a little celebration ritual of our own! Here is Sam demonstrating said ritual!!
Although mostly down hill, I’m afraid I had hit my trekking limit about an hour before the end and my face soured a little, but the promise of homemade, organic ice cream at the end spurred me on and when we arrived back into town we all collapsed into chairs and had cups of coffee and buckets of mixed flavoured ice cream. We tried the dulce de leche granizado, lemon pie and calafate flavours. The calafate berry is a local berry and it tastes a little like blackcurrant in the ice cream we had, yummy. Argentinians LOVE dulce de leche which is a delicious caramel (I guess their version of the Colombian arequipe) and you can get it on and with everything here! It is yummy. I have taken to eating it with crackers out of a pot! Later on we cooked a meal for ourselves on our stove and went to bed just as the sun did.
We arrived at the glacier lake and had a very chilly and windswept lunch picnic and began our walk back. (If you look closely there are huge chunks of ice in that there glacier lake - and the strong, gusty wind had a minus degrees chill factor! We're doing very well to attempt to move our mouth muscles into a smile in this photo!!)
We were still able to drink the water straight from the streams as they came directly from the glacier melt. By this time we had enjoyed glacier water so much we had created a little celebration ritual of our own! Here is Sam demonstrating said ritual!!
Although mostly down hill, I’m afraid I had hit my trekking limit about an hour before the end and my face soured a little, but the promise of homemade, organic ice cream at the end spurred me on and when we arrived back into town we all collapsed into chairs and had cups of coffee and buckets of mixed flavoured ice cream. We tried the dulce de leche granizado, lemon pie and calafate flavours. The calafate berry is a local berry and it tastes a little like blackcurrant in the ice cream we had, yummy. Argentinians LOVE dulce de leche which is a delicious caramel (I guess their version of the Colombian arequipe) and you can get it on and with everything here! It is yummy. I have taken to eating it with crackers out of a pot! Later on we cooked a meal for ourselves on our stove and went to bed just as the sun did.
The next day Sam and I had yet another lie in and then as it was another blue sky day, we decided to walk to the laguna Capri and the mirador of the Fitz-Roy mountain range. It was the most astoundingly beautiful walk we have done yet! And much faster than the predicted time of one hour forty five minutes. Mercifully short and through woods of crazy looking old trees, the kind you imagine in story books with hairy lichen growing all over them and alongside the incredible valley (the view which we can see from our tent).
The path along the valley is very high up and you can see for miles! The mirador is spectacular and we spent a good while there taking photos and staring into the sun and the unbelievable beauty of the range.
Then we walked round further to reach the lake. This too was so, so beautiful. The colours and reflections and the golden glimmers that the sun made on the surface of the lake rendered us quiet and still for a spell.
That evening we all met up and had a meal together and again Samly and I drank a bottle of amazing wine, this time a woody tasting Malbec. We chatted the night away and even got to see some stars before we went to sleep. In fact we had a little excitement just before bedtime! As I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, Sam urgently whispered ‘Clarence, Clarence!’ I rushed out just in time to see a skunk skulking passed, tail raised! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I scrambled for my camera and followed him down through some bushes but his black camouflage worked well and he disappeared into the dark of the night. Sam told me later that he had seen the skunk and thought it was a badger, upon thinking it was strange that there was a badger in Argentina he moved closer to get a better look. The animal then raised its tail and began making a throaty growling sound. Then Sam called me and the skunk started moving off! How crazy is that! A real wild and angry skunk!
The path along the valley is very high up and you can see for miles! The mirador is spectacular and we spent a good while there taking photos and staring into the sun and the unbelievable beauty of the range.
Then we walked round further to reach the lake. This too was so, so beautiful. The colours and reflections and the golden glimmers that the sun made on the surface of the lake rendered us quiet and still for a spell.
That evening we all met up and had a meal together and again Samly and I drank a bottle of amazing wine, this time a woody tasting Malbec. We chatted the night away and even got to see some stars before we went to sleep. In fact we had a little excitement just before bedtime! As I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, Sam urgently whispered ‘Clarence, Clarence!’ I rushed out just in time to see a skunk skulking passed, tail raised! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I scrambled for my camera and followed him down through some bushes but his black camouflage worked well and he disappeared into the dark of the night. Sam told me later that he had seen the skunk and thought it was a badger, upon thinking it was strange that there was a badger in Argentina he moved closer to get a better look. The animal then raised its tail and began making a throaty growling sound. Then Sam called me and the skunk started moving off! How crazy is that! A real wild and angry skunk!
The next day we awoke to rain and wind hammering at sides of the tent. We had planned to walk to the mirador to see some condors but it was not going to be nice battling hefty wind strength and rain lashes. Instead we readied ourselves for our next trip and sought refuge in a café. Before meeting up with the others we returned to our tent to find it blown onto its side! Hilarious removal attempt ensues which involved us trying to pull the tent to relocate it practically inside a tree bush thing and me falling backwards, trapped on my back by the wind and the muscle weakening giggles. It was hilarious. We managed to peg it in and the tree did work very well as a wind shield. After some reorganisation and a bit of a snooze we met up with the others to say our farewells. It had been lovely having a group to hang out with and they were all really lovely and interesting people. When you’re travelling two weeks is a long time to spend with people and it had been great! The time had come for us to go our separate ways however. Although they would be staying together a little while longer, travelling to Bariloche, as we were headed further inland Patagonia to stay on an estancia about eighteen kilometres from la cueva de los manos (the cave of hands) which holds cave art from around seven thousand years BC. So we ate some tasty food together for one last time and said our goodbyes. Their bus was leaving at midnight that night whilst ours wasn’t leaving until nine AM the next morning. By this time the wind had died down, the rain had stopped and blue sky had appeared. Although the temperature had dropped by quite a few degrees. They weren’t joking when they said that anything can happen with the weather in Patagonia!
However we slept through an incredibly cold night in the tent and got dressed in the freezing cold morning. We packed up all our things and waved goodbye to lovely, bumbly Humberto and our beautiful campsite and set off for the café to load up on empanadas, pastries and bread for the journey.
Here I am writing this on our journey. We are travelling on a bus along the (in)famous route 40, part tarmacked (when I say 'part' I actually mean 'tiny bit'), part rubble bump road with an hilarious team of drivers. Some of which know where we need to be dropped on the side of the road for our estancia. Route 40 is a very, VERY straight road that leads through the amazingly barren and mostly flat land of Patagonia. Here is a view from Route 40 when we stopped at a gas stop...
One of the drivers has just legged it out of the bus as it stopped and caught an armadillo!! He brought it back on board for us all to see and then let it go again. SO cute! I’ve never seen an armadillo before. Fancy that! A skunk one day and an armadillo the next!! Armadillos are hairy little guys!
Fingers crossed where we’re going will be nice. We’ve planned to stay at this estancia so that we can trek a round trek of ten hours through a canyon to the cave of hands and back but who knows what we’ll find when they drop us off at the side of the road! We weigh a tonne with all our stuff as well so we’re hoping that the driver’s estimation of about ten minutes walk is as close as close can be! I’ll let you know what happens in the next instalment!
Here I am writing this on our journey. We are travelling on a bus along the (in)famous route 40, part tarmacked (when I say 'part' I actually mean 'tiny bit'), part rubble bump road with an hilarious team of drivers. Some of which know where we need to be dropped on the side of the road for our estancia. Route 40 is a very, VERY straight road that leads through the amazingly barren and mostly flat land of Patagonia. Here is a view from Route 40 when we stopped at a gas stop...
One of the drivers has just legged it out of the bus as it stopped and caught an armadillo!! He brought it back on board for us all to see and then let it go again. SO cute! I’ve never seen an armadillo before. Fancy that! A skunk one day and an armadillo the next!! Armadillos are hairy little guys!
Fingers crossed where we’re going will be nice. We’ve planned to stay at this estancia so that we can trek a round trek of ten hours through a canyon to the cave of hands and back but who knows what we’ll find when they drop us off at the side of the road! We weigh a tonne with all our stuff as well so we’re hoping that the driver’s estimation of about ten minutes walk is as close as close can be! I’ll let you know what happens in the next instalment!
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